The Summer After College
by Coudneverdreamtobebetter
Summary: It's the first summer after her first year at NYU. Melinda doesn't really want to be back in Syracuse, neither does she want to see her ex-boyfriend that she left when she left the city. But we don't always get what we want. Or do we? It's been five years since she was raped, and she feels stronger, but can se survive this new obstacle, this new pain, this new heartbreak?
1. Chapter 1

College is so strange sometimes. One minute all you want is for it to be done and for the work to stop. The other, you miss like crazy, not wanting to go back home and to have to work. Syracuse is going to be warm and boring. I'll just be cornered every three seconds with questions such as: How's the Big Apple treating you? and Are you okay? To the first I answer the same thing every time: Yes, yes, it's hectic, but I like it. And to the second I answer: Dude! It's been five years. Get over yourself and understand that I'm not a kicked puppy. The ride home is hot and long, Ivy sits next to me, almost jumping with excitment. I thought she like Columbia. I wouldn't know, we don't talk much, I go to NYU. I mean, we shared an apartment, but we barely saw each other and most of the time, she was otherwise occupied a.k.a. she had a boy's tongue in her mouth.  
"Would you stop, you're stressing me out." She sits tight, but doesn't beaming like she's just learned she can meet Jim Morrisson and have his beautifully-haired babies.  
"Sorry, I didn't think this would be hard for you. Are you-" I interrupt her.  
"Don't you dare ask me if I'm okay." She sighs.  
"- Hungry. I was going to ask if you were hungry, obviously." I nod, knowing that was a cheap escape. She turns on the radio and the Proclaimers are playing. I start to sing along, but feel weird when she stares at me. I read the sign and my hands start to shake. It's like she reads my mind because she says, "Fourteen miles, Syracuse. Home sweet home." You could say that. We continue driving and the tension seems palpable. I turn into the exit and drive to the now foreign city. I mean, I recognize everything, it's only a year since I finished high school, but it's still weird. I see old widow Rodrigez walk her dog and wave. She waves back and I drive past Merriweather. A shiver goes through me. Ivy notices, but doesn't say anything. I drop her off at her parents' place and tell her to have a good summer. We sublet the appartment for the summer, so we'll be living together again next year. I drive to my own home and park in the driveway. Mum and Dad are waiting on the porch, drinking coffee and holding each other. I smile and run into their arms. Mum is crying and Dad is all red. They hug me tight and I love this. I think my leaving brought them back closer. Thank you, Melinda. You've done it again. I carry my bags inside and they help me out. I slump down on my old bed, staring at my drawings on the ceiling. Mum pushes the door ajar and sits next to me, silent.  
"We missed you, sweetie. We really did." I hug her hard and Dad comes in. He hugs us and I missed this so much.  
"I love you so much." After this spur of the moment love, we seperate, kinda uncertain of what to do. "So, what I can I do to help with supper?" Mum chuckles, it's only four thirty p.m.  
"Well, I was going to go to the market to get chicken, you want to come? Like old times?" I nod and shoo them out, so I can change into clothes that aren't completely stained with cheep fries and cheetos. I wear jean shorts and a gray tank top. My leather boots seem like they would ignite my legs on fire, so I put on Greek sandals. I tie my hair in a loose bun and go downstairs. I follow my mum to her car and we drive off, Dad waving us away. As if I was leaving again. We don't speak on the way there, but it's still nice. We walk over the parking lot to the market. She shows me the list and seems incertain.  
"Mum, I know how to shop for food. You know, I have lived alone for a year now. I can even make more than toast. Incredible, I know." She smiles, the lines on face sharpening. Her long gray and brown hair frames her head and she looks good. Since she bought the Effert's, it's been going much better. She can finally get up after dawn and come home before it's dark out. She'll be able to retire properly. I fish the list out of the basket and decide to go look for orange juice and butter. I roam the aisles a bit, not wanting to go back to my mum, saying I couldn't find anything. I finally do find butter and when I reach the orange juice, I almost drop it. David is there. The David Petrakis. And he isn't alone. I can't believe he has a girlfriend. Unless that's a very, very friendly cousin. My throat goes dry. They grab ice cream from the giant freezer a few feet away. I turn away and take the juice. He rebounded. He's fine. He probably wasn't even sad when we broke up. For some reason, the thought that he would come back during the summer too didn't cross my mind. I just thought a doctor in the making like him was bound to stay in Boston for the summer. I was wrong. I was even more wrong to think that our breakup meant something to him. I walk in the other direction and meet up with Mum. She smiles at me, but then it dissapears when she sees my expressions.  
"Why didn't you tell me David was coming home for the summer? I know you're friends with the Petrakises!" She looks down as we set our items on the cashier's rolling table thingy. I'm not sure what the name for that is. Conveyer belt, I would say.  
"I didn't know how and anyway, it doesn't matter now. You know. Is he in the market? I'd like to say hello to him."  
"No, you will not. He's with someone, anyway." As I say this, I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn around to see him there, with the slut following him. She has beautiful red hair and a smile that would make Osama Ben Laden drop his guns and kiss her. "H-hy, David. I didn't know you were coming home for summer break." He looks as shy as I do. Never was quite the jock or socialite.  
"Yeah, just for two weeks before January and I have an internship at a hospital." I know I'm blushing at the sound of her name. It's a pretty name too.  
"January?" I have a slither of hope that this isn't her and that she really just is so girl he was giving ice cream too that became a stalker and followed him.  
"Oh, yeah. This is January Rivers." She advances and smiles. She gives me her hand and I shake it against my will. "And this is Melinda Sordino." Her face lights up with reconition.  
"Oh, you're Melinda Sordino." She says, with a British accent. Great, she's English too. Could she be better. Oh wait, she's a doctor! And that settles it. She's not some art major at NYU. She goes to Harvard. Stupid her. I know I've been staring for a while, but I don't care. "David told me so much about you. He's been eating my ear off." He blushes heavily and I do too. January doesn't notice. "Well, we better go. Mr. and Mrs. Petrakis are waiting for us and ice cream." He nods and they leave. God! My mother is already paying when I turn around. We finish checking out and leave. We cook the chicken when we arrive at home and eat in silence. Oh, yeah, this is the great beginning of a new summer. Just great.

Hey, this is January talking, not the person from Speak, but the author of this fanfiction. I also wrote a story about Divergent, so you can check that out if you want. Thanks for reading. Review if you desire.


	2. Chapter 2

I can't sleep. I can't stop thinking about him and what he's doing. What is he doing? I desperatly want to go to a party tonight, I just need to, but it's not now and here that there's going to be a rave with booze where I can forget it all. Well, maybe not a rave, but Syracuse does have booze. I climb out of bed, making sure my floor doesn't creak and grab a hair brush. I clumsily tie my hair into a bun and walk downstairs, still in my red and black plaid pajamas. I put on my leather boots and a jacket. I open the door and the air is warm. I jump into my car and drive off to the nearest bar. I start to get out when I realize. Everyone knows me here. And my age. Getting a whole newspaper article about you every year with updates about your life and Andy Evans' can do that to you. I mean, "the young Melinda, is in the midst of her studies at NYU in art. Andy Evans is still in jail, but his realease is scheduled to be in a few months. Will the pressure of this twenty year's old past life threaten to break through?" God, the pressure of my past is not a girl in puberty, it does not break through. I drive off, not too sure where to go. I know there's another twenty-four hour bar not far out of the city. I guess that's where I'll go. I don't have much choice. When I park, all I want is to be back in New York where it's so big you're pretty sure you won't see anyone you know when you go to the other end of the city. I want to be able to forget David with a sketchbook and some vodka disguised in Jell-o. At least a beer or something. My parents don't let me drink, they believe that's one of the reasons I was raped, so... But, I know that I would have swooned for Andy Evans even I hadn't been drinking. Anyway, this is not the time to think of him. He's stuck somewhere in jail. That thought makes my throat block, so I grab my keys and head inside the digusting old half wooden, half digusting open rock one-story building. I sit at the bar, on a stool. Two people are talking not too far and they are kinda of loud. I don't evesdrop, though. It's not worthit. I order a beer and wait. I close my eyes and hear some angry shouting and the front door close in a THUMP. Great, more drama. I don't open my eyes, though. I hear the sound of a drink being set in front of me and take it without even glancing in it's direction. I gulp, letting the bitter taste fill my mouth. I finally open my eyes, only to see a girl to my left, walking over to the other side, to my right. I don't look where's she going, I just stare at my drink. I stare and stare until I recognize a voice. I know that voice all too well. I heard that voice yell earlier, but didn't recognize it. I take out money and set it under the bottle. I try to the escape before anything else hapens, but I hear my name.  
"Melinda?" Asks David. I slowly turn around and look at him. Great. What is he doing here? He stares at me, bewildered. Awe-freaking-some. I want him gone. I think I might actually faint. He gets up. "What are you doing here?" I snort.  
"I could ask the same thing of you, I mean there a bunch of bars back in Syracuse." He shrugs, he looks so cute when he does that. I miss him so much and I feel weak for that.  
"Yeah, well, I thought there was a chance you'd be in one of them, so I thought I'd get out of the city. What about you?" I guess my excuses pales in comparaison.  
"Everyone knows my age bacl in town. I mean, the newspaper article make is impossible to buy a drink without the press knowing about it. Here, I have a slinter of a chance of getting away with it. I guess that's what happens when you drink at parties and..." I don't finish my sentence. He knows, of course he knows.  
"Good point. Want another beer?" I look around, searching for January. "She's not here, she just left, I'm surprised you didn't see her, she was yelling pretty loud." I remember the couple arguing, I guess that was them. I cough a bit.  
"I have to drive and stuff, sorry, but I'll see you around, okay?" I don't leave him enough time to answer, I run out of there and jump into my car. I only had like one beer and I don't feel tipsy at all, so I can drive fine. I rethink of this short conversation. I can't help, but remember our first time. I mean, that first time. We were studying biology together and it was the end of junior year, during the exam period. I mean, we really were studying. At one point, I dropped my pencil on his textbook and reached over to get it, when he kissed my neck. It was the first time he'd actually kiss my neck. I turn around, face looking up at him and kissed him. It was pure bliss. I knew I liked him a lot, we'd been dating for a year and a half. We said it was love, but I didn't know what love was until later on in our relationship. I remember studying on his bed and our books falling to the floor. I remember not caring and sitting on his lap, legs wrapped around his waist and seeing where this was going. His mother was out for a while and we were all alone. Itsn't nice when that gives out to be? The right answer is: yes. I remember pulling off his shirt and he was never the sporty type, but to me, he was perfect. I remember my shirt coming off and it was the first time he saw me only in a bra. It was incredible. It was beauitufl and magical. I've had sex since with him and with others and I'll have sex later on, but that was the most spectacular time of all. I wish I could say it was my first time. The time I lost my virginity and inocence, but that had happened long before that. I park into my driveway and fall asleep there, in my car.

David-  
I look at the acceptance letter again, I never could throw it out. If she saw this, would she still hate me? Would she still blame me for this. I used to think people were going to pity for her because everyone knew what had happened when she was thirteen, but they didn't. They pitied me, for letting for of such a marvelous person. Of letting go of the best girl I'd ever met. I mean, I was ready to deceive my family and teachers to make us work and her happy, but she never knew that. She never knew that I left her to go to Harvard, because I thought she had met some other guy that went to NYU. I was going to tell her that I was transferring to New York, so we could stay together, when she told me about Derek, this awkward sporty guy she knew there and all of sudden my hopes came crashing down. She was going to leave me anyway, so might as well do it now. I guess I was wrong, because turns out Derek was gay drug addict. God, I'm an ass. I really am. It's almost sad. January turns around in the bed and I look at her, as beautiful as she may be, her name is not Melinda Sardino and I don't love her.


End file.
